Force India excited by Ocon's potential

Esteban Ocon's potential for improvement over the next two years outweighs the frustration of knowing Mercedes will control his future, according to Force India's Otmar Szafnauer.

The Frenchman has impressed during his first full season in Formula 1, finishing every race so far in 2017 and only failing to score points in Monaco. Ocon's record follows nine consecutive finishes for Manor last year, with his last single-seater retirement coming during his title-winning F3 season in 2014.

"[That run] is amazing to me," Force India's chief operating officer Szafnauer says. "He's smart, he finishes, scores good points, he's young and still learning a lot. This was our hope, that he would be this good. And maybe it was our expectation otherwise we wouldn't have hired him, but I believe he has exceeded our expectations."

And Szafnauer says Force India is eager to see just how much more Ocon will progress during his time with the team, having joined on a multi-year deal this season.

"The really, really difficult thing is to predict a future learning curve," he said. "That's hard to predict, but what you can say is that he's improved a lot this year already and he's still really young and inexperienced. Checo has got 130 race starts under his belt and Esteban has got 25. So I still think he's learning.

"You plateau. I don't know how steep the learning curve will be and where the plateau is, however I don't think he's at his plateau, so he will get better next year. How quickly and how much more is hard to know."

With Ocon a Mercedes young driver, Szafnauer admits there is some frustration that Force India will inevitably lose control of the 21-year-old's future.

"Mercedes won't control where he goes next year or the year after, but beyond that. It's a bit frustrating, you would like to be in control of your own destiny but when needs must with other relationships and other financial dealings, that's what you have to do.

"I think we're a good team with nurturing young talent and if we can do that with Esteban then I think there will be others coming up of equal potential and maybe we'll nurture them."